A Program for Neuro-Diverse Adults in Our Own Back Yard

This week I was involved with an interesting visit to a program merely 2 miles down the road from Hill Top Prep. Carousel Connections was created in 2012 by Amy and Chris McCann as "a community of support that walks alongside families as they journey across stages of development."

Mainly, this is a summer program of up to six weeks in length.  Families can sign up their young adult to participate for 2 weeks or 4 weeks or all 6 weeks.  Located on the campus of Haverford College during the summer, Carousel Connections provides independent living experiences during the summer but has also grown into offering weekend adventures in which summer participants can sign up to travel together to places such as the Poconos during the Fall and Winter months.

They also work on community building and employment opportunities through community service projects as well as supported and customized employment experiences.  Lastly, they work on thinking ahead planning by starting with skills inventory and consultation with the family as well as building personal support networks for each of their participants.  Each summer there are 60 participants who are registered to participate and they employ between 25 and 27 mentors who work with the participants.

A new aspect of the Carousel Connections has to do with creating small groups of like-minded individuals to live together in a house or apartment.  Because of all of the details in making this happen and be a success for all involved, it is a slow process.

During the academic year, Amy and Chris are both on faculty at Friends School Haverford located adjacent to the campus of Haverford School and Haverford College.  It is a wonderfully warm community that has developed a beautifully inclusive environment for a small number of students who are neurodiverse to be part of a typical independent school environment.  As a Quaker school in mission and in practice, they are accepting and celebrate true diversity with the differences in the student body.  With such a long waiting list of neurodiverse students who would like to be part of this school FSH works hard to keep a healthy balance of learning profiles so that everyone grows at their optimum rate. This is the location that I spent my time with Amy as we talked about so many common interests for students with learning differences.

Because Amy and Chris have worked for the last five years with neurodiverse adults they have a great deal of experience in working with funding and support services through the Commonwealth of PA.  She shared with me information about how to work with the folks at OVR (Office of Vocational Rehab) in Norristown and ARC in Philadelphia who have significant resources for adults with special learning differences.  Much of this is information in which our own Amy Gillespie has become quite an expert. However, this is all quite new to me.  Since I am trying to focus on employment, independent living and social experiences for neurodiverse adults, it is something that I am learning about as quickly as possible.

Amy is very interested in the programs at Hill Top and is looking forward to a visit to our campus when I return to my office after Spring Break.  We are going to show her the ET program and have her spend time talking with the folks in that program and also with Amy Gillespie so she can talk about how the Transition Program works for each of our students in the Upper School.  It is exciting to make new friends who live and work so near us and who share our interest in making things work for our kids!!